Scalia admits his positions not supported by Constitution

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Saturday October 21, 2006 · 7:25 PM PDT

2006/10/21 · 19:25

Justice Scalia, when he's not battling the freedom of the press or civil rights, occassionally has something honest to say. Today was one of those days:

The more your courts become policy-makers, the less sense it makes to have them entirely independent... Take the abortion issue. Whichever side wins, in the courts, the other side feels cheated. I mean, you know, there's something to be said for both sides.
The court could have said, 'No, thank you.' The court have said, you know, 'There is nothing in the Constitution on the abortion issue for either side.' It could have said the same thing about suicide, it could have said the same thing about ... you know, all the social issues the courts are now taking. (AP)

punditpong

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Monday October 16, 2006 · 9:18 PM PDT

2006/10/16 · 21:18

The verdict for the Saddam Hussein trial has been set to November 5th, 2006, two days before the US mid-term elections on November 7th. While White House Republicans have undoubtedly timed the verdict to benefit them in the mid-terms, Democrats have an excellent opportunity to seize here.

We need to make a strong case that the Bush administration has synchronized the verdict with the US mid-term elections, and that this is emblematic of Republicans prioritizing their politics over progress in Iraq and our soldiers lives.

First, let's consider what evidence we have that the Hussein verdict has been synched to the mid-terms. Read More

Baker: NK had nuke 15 years ago

punditpong

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Thursday October 12, 2006 · 6:43 PM PDT

2006/10/12 · 18:43

This may be old news, but I found no mention of it elsewhere on KOS.

I just watched Stewart's interview with James Baker twice in order to write a transcript for a different post. But, this line stuck out to me as exceptionally bizarre, and it begged for a follow-up because I can find no other mention of North Korea having a nuclear weapon under Bush pere:

JB: They had a rudimentary nuclear weapon way back in the days when I was Secretary of State. Now, this one is a more advanced one, evidently. (YouTube)

punditpong

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Tuesday September 19, 2006 · 3:37 PM PDT

2006/09/19 · 15:37

Many have wondered why the Bush administration and Rumsfailed's DoD sent troops into Iraq with absolutely no plan to secure Iraq and protect our troops after Bush's conquest ended.

The Downing Street Memo revealed that Bush and his Neo-Con cronies gave "little thought" to the war's "aftermath and how to shape it." But why would Bush and his Republican dittoheads lead America's troops into Iraq with no plan for the war's aftermath at all? Why would they close their ears to military strategists, generals, and intelligence officials who knew we would need more troops to secure Iraq?

General Mark Scheid says that he has the answer. He says that Rumsfeld and Bush avoided planning because that would show they knew it couldn't be the quick "six days, six weeks, I doubt six months" war that they sold to their country. They lied, eschewed any post-war strategy, and cost thousands of American lives so that they could guarantee that they would get the war they wanted: Read More

Snakes on a Plame: Failed Iran intelligence

punditpong

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Wednesday August 23, 2006 · 11:55 PM PDT

2006/08/23 · 23:55

While Bush, Condi, Kristol, and even Chris Mathews begin to push the Neo-Cons' case for pre-emptive war with Iran, a House Intelligence Committee staff report released yesterday describes "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran." The dearth of intelligence is so severe that the report questions the ability of the United States to even engage effectively in talks with Tehran (Reuters).

It has been reported that the Bush Administration's unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame significantly endangered US intelligence, national security, and the US' ability to fight nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. Even more damaging is that Plame "was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran" (Raw Story).
Read More

If WH planned Leb attacks, why not plan to protect American lives there???

punditpong

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Tuesday August 15, 2006 · 3:27 AM PDT

2006/08/15 · 03:27

Hersh has reported that the Bush Administration was involved with planning Israel's attacks and viewed the campaign as a prelude to a US attack on Iran. Many on the right and in the MSM will overlook how the Bush Administration has actively encouraged anti-Americanism in the Middle East by promoting such a tired, failed strategy as strategic bombing.

But the revelation that the Bush Administration was involved in the planning of the attacks raises another disturbing question that even the most bellicose of the Neo-Cons might admit reveals severely misplaced priorities within the Bush White House:

If the Bush Administration was involved in planning the attacks, why was it utterly unprepared to get US citizens out of Lebanon once the bombings began???

Read More

Getting Out of Lebanon: A $3000 helicopter ride

punditpong

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Monday July 17, 2006 · 11:20 PM PDT

2006/07/17 · 23:20

This morning when I checked my in-box, I read the following email from a friend:

Some very close family friends of ours (Lebanese-Americans who are US citizens) were in Lebanon when the bombing started, and were staying with relatives just a few miles from the airport. Once Israel cut off the country, they had no safe options for getting out. The US military / embassy's solution? A $3000 per-person helicopter ride 100 miles to Cyprus.

punditpong

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Tuesday May 30, 2006 · 11:59 PM PDT

2006/05/30 · 23:59

The White House's line on Haditha is that Bush first learned about the killings from a Time reporter:

Q When was the President first briefed about the events in Haditha?
MR. SNOW: When a Time reporter first made the call. Time began asking questions about it. He was briefed by Steve Hadley at the time and began asking questions then. (White House dot Guv)

punditpong

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Friday May 12, 2006 · 10:12 AM PDT

2006/05/12 · 10:12

The Pentagon is using blacklisted arms smugglers to get guns from Bosnia to Iraq, where they suddenly disappear. These are the largest arms shipments from Bosnia since World War II, and the guns have just vanished en route to Iraq. Let's hope the WH press corps has more than a few questions for Snow Job about this on Tuesday:

US in secret gun deal: Small arms shipped from Bosnia to Iraq 'go missing' as Pentagon uses dealers
The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

punditpong

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Tuesday May 02, 2006 · 7:01 AM PDT

2006/05/02 · 07:01

Senator Joseph Biden has been one of the few congressmen actively thinking about how to best structure our mission in Iraq and the Iraqi government itself.

Last September he encouraged compromise with Sunnis over Iraq's constitution. And yesterday, he presented an imaginative plan to quell sectarian violence in Iraq:

(A) leading Senate Democrat on Monday suggested the creation of separate, autonomous regions for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to counter continuing ethnic and religious violence. (LA Times)

punditpong

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Friday March 31, 2006 · 2:23 PM PST

2006/03/31 · 14:23

Bush was caught on tape lying to America about Katrina. He was caught on tape lying to the American people, the UN, and the world about when and how he decided to go to war with Iraq. He clearly has lied about what his administration was told about WMD.

But do we know that he knew there weren't WMDs in Iraq? While we certainly know that the administration used false intelligence in their WMD arguments, I cannot think of any conclusive evidence that they knew for certain that there were not WMDs in Iraq.

As I was leaving for a meeting this morning, however, something occured to me about the Murray Waas article that hadn't hit me when I first read it. Waas writes that: Read More

40 mutilated bodies found in the streets of suburban Baghdad

punditpong

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Sunday March 26, 2006 · 9:05 PM PST

2006/03/26 · 21:05

The Bush administration and the increasingly pathetic GOP leadership can complain all they want about the media's lack of coverage of the good the administration says it has brought to Iraq. The media's response is that the situation in Iraq has deteriorated so badly that there is no longer security to allow them to cover the occassional opening of a school or another dozen people's electricity being switched back on (See HERE.)

And as much as Bush and GOP leaders want to convince America that the security situation is not as bad as the press says it is, there is no denying 40 mutilated bodies lying in the streets in a suburb of the capital. Read More

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Scalia admits his positions not supported by Constitution

Evidence the Hussein verdict is synched to elections

Baker: NK had nuke 15 years ago

Gen. Scheid: Rummy feared any post-war plans would hurt support

Snakes on a Plame: Failed Iran intelligence

If WH planned Leb attacks, why not plan to protect American lives there???

Getting Out of Lebanon: A $3000 helicopter ride

Haditha: Three readings of Snow's 'Time told us' comment

200,000 AK47s go missing in Iraq

Biden Proposes Autonomous Regions for Iraq

Rove's WMD concerns suggests White House knew Iraq had none

40 mutilated bodies found in the streets of suburban Baghdad